5 Things You Have to Do Well to Have a Great Marriage When studying in preaching class, the professor asked us what we should do when we hear a great sermon and would like to use it. He said it wouldn’t be right to copy it directly without giving credit and that it would be better to use the main points and make the rest of it our own. That...
How We Met Kim and I both grew up on farms. They were 5 miles apart near the town of Ligonier in northern Indiana. Kim is five years younger than me so we didn’t meet until after I had graduated from high school. It is common in our community for kids to gather at a house with parents who love to have the kids around, and Kim and I met...
Q&A: Abusive Relationships: Understanding and Recovering From Them Here’s a question we received: As someone who has survived an abusive relationship prior to my marriage with the love of my life, my heart goes out to all people out there who are in relationships plagued by abuse. It is so easy to spot an abusive relationship after you have been in one yourself, but it is so difficult to...
What if your vision of marriage is shortsighted? What if the end goal of the marriage relationship is better than you have imagined? What if there is more to marriage than you anticipated? In this simple illustration, we’ll show you how God intends for marriage to be more than you could have imagined. Sometimes people that come for premarital counseling or meet us for the first time think we...
You aren’t as accurate at remembering as you think you are. In fact, many of the things you remember aren’t necessarily true. In some ways, we are like the old sailor that told the tale so many times that he started believing it himself. Let’s learn how to manage our expectations so that we have the best possible mindset. Have you ever been somewhere with your spouse and...
Twelve years ago, something happened in my devotions that became a milestone in my faith. I was reading Luke chapter 10 when a thought came upon me that I couldn’t let go of. This thought captured me and changed the direction of my walk with God. Over the years, it has become one of the foundation stones of my relationship with God. It has inhabited my mind...
This question was submitted to us by a couple of people in a couple of different ways. How can you sustain a healthy sex life after kids? Years ago, we were with another couple and the wife surprised us by saying, “I could care less if I never had sex again”. I wasn’t sure whether to feel sorrier for her or her husband. Kids are the culmination of...
Have you ever felt like you didn’t love your spouse? Did the feelings just leave you? In this time of confusion, there is hope and there is guidance from God. Don’t worry, God is still on the throne… and He’s not nervous. There came a time in our marriage when I fell out of love with Kim. I didn’t try to. There was no one else I was interested in...
123 Magic: How to Agree on Raising and Disciplining Kids Back when Kim and I were foster parents, they trained us in the “123 Magic” method of child-rearing. The agency didn’t allow foster children to be spanked and offered us this alternative, which we learned a lot from! Kids Need Consequences There is a difference between punishment and consequence. If your child has been told not to touch the hot...
Question: What are some effective ways to communicate when you're upset and not ready to talk about it yet (needing cool off time or time to understand your own feelings before talking about them)? Great question. Who hasn’t had this experience, yet it can be difficult to address the issue. We love our spouse, but we feel like we just don’t want to talk about it right now. Here...
© 2024 · Keeping The Vows | All Rights Reserved